


The J.A.C.I.E. Project

by aweirdkindofyellow



Category: All Time Low (Band)
Genre: Age Difference, F/M, Interns & Internships, Jacie not Jasey, Music, One Night Stands, Secret Relationship, Wake Up Sunshine
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:14:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26359294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aweirdkindofyellow/pseuds/aweirdkindofyellow
Summary: JACIEJay-see \ d͡ʒˈe͡ɪsi \See Jennifer Anna Clara Isabell Evans. An ambitious 21-year-old music student, striving to find her place in the industry.JACKJak \ d͡ʒæk \A guy ten years older than Jacie, who takes a liking to her.
Relationships: Jack Barakat & Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

My name’s Jacie. That’s Jacie with a c-i-e, not a s-e-y. It’s also not Casey. Just Jacie. Actually, that’s a lie, it’s Jennifer Anna Clara Isabell Evans, but I go by Jacie. It’s more like an acronym, really. None of my actual names ever sat right with me. When I was five years old, I was writing out my initials under a drawing and declared that I wanted to be called Jacie from there on out. Somehow both my parents entertained the idea and it stuck since.

They never agreed on anything. My parents, that is. Never. How they ever got married was beyond me. They couldn’t even agree on a name for me. My dad wanted to name me Jennifer Anna, and my mom wanted to name me Clara Isabell. There was not a single compromise that either of them could make. The only reason Jennifer Anna came first was because my dad was the one who got to write my names down for the birth certificate. It was only a good thing, otherwise I would have never found J.A.C.I.E. I honestly still do not know how they managed to stay together long enough to have my little brother, Benjamin Tobias Evans.

Ben was the light of my life. He was fourteen years younger than I was, making him six. The only reason why he had two names and not four like me was because I named him. Yet again, our parents couldn’t come to an agreement, so they gave me the honour. Not the greatest choice. I was thirteen when I made that decision and thought it sounded like a cool name from a young adult book. But, hey, at least he wasn’t named Jennifer Anna Clara Isabell Evans. Ben, or Benny as I sometimes liked calling him, was a very acceptable name.

He never got to know what life was like with two parents. My mom had left by the time he was one, they divorced soon after, and then my dad got full custody and my mom only had visitation rights. I was glad the court favoured my dad even though he also came with his downsides. Anything was better than the constant need for disagreement, though. Something in me knew it wasn’t even about differing opinions, it was about always wanting to be opposing the other’s view.

Luckily Ben never had to witness any of that. I spent many days in my life wondering why they wouldn’t get a divorce. It was the best for everybody even though it was so confusing. Anything was better than the screaming and unbearable bickering.

My little brother was the only reason I was where I was in life. I wanted to set a good example for him, that anything was possible as long as you put your mind to it. He didn’t exactly have a good role model in my mom, who was always more suited for the single life than the family life. Although he was only six, I wanted to show him that there was a way to have everything. I had a social life, good grades, and managed to work my ass off as well. It was possible. Hard, but possible.

I was in my last year of my college degree. I studied the very broad subject of music. My college did offer specialist courses, but when I began, I had no idea where I wanted to take it. Now, a few months over two years later, I knew it a lot better. Although I enjoyed performing, I liked the songwriting process just a little more. Better to say, I loved songwriting and producing. I also realised that this wasn’t a field I could just hop in and hope to get a good job in. I needed to do more to stand out.

That’s where internships came in. I knew I needed to get myself some work experience before I was thrown out into the real world. Nowadays there was no way to get a job anywhere unless you had five years experience in some software that had only been available for a year. I was sure to get ahead of that. I signed up for every internship that was even remotely relevant. It was the only way, especially with how competitive it all was in L.A.

And that’s how I ended up at the Fueled by Ramen L.A. offices. It was one competitive place. Rather than just coming in for one single interview. They had us come in in groups. It reminded me a lot of college orientation. We were shown around, trying to convince us to work there. But really, there was a large group of people and only two of us were going to be picked. Pretty torturous if you asked me; showing us how great it would be while not giving us the job. It was what it was.

I was standing there leaning against a wall after our tour was done, waiting for my name to be called up for our individual interviews. A water fountain was right next to me, meaning the others around me would often come up for a sip of water, giving me the usual awkward nod. It was all so strange and silent. We were waiting outside meeting rooms which were being used. Even if anybody wanted to, we couldn’t say much more than a quiet whisper.

All I could really do to fill the time was stare ahead, over everybody else, right at the wall at the end of the hallway, and tightly hold onto my folder. It had things such as my CV, the printed information sheet they wanted filled out, and other items I thought would help me look good.

There was this meeting going on in the meeting room just past the water fountain that had started even before we all arrived here. It seemed like quite the serious one. Not that I expected anything less. But there were quite a few people in there discussing something. It could only be important.

At one point, however, the frosted glass door opened and somebody walked out. I didn’t even bother to look in the direction of the movement. Considering that I actually did need an internship, I didn’t want to stare as they left the room, making them uncomfortable and feel like they’re being judged. We’ve all been there before. It’s not great.

They walked up to the water fountain, leaning over and taking a quick drink. I just shuffled over a little to give them some more space, assuming they’d leave in no time. But then I noticed a pair of eyes staring right at me. I finally looked at the person who had left the meeting and saw a guy. He definitely had either dark brown or black hair naturally, but now it was bleached to an ash blonde. I mean, it definitely didn’t look like his real hair colour with that black beard and those bushy eyebrows.

“Hi.” He smiled as soon as I made eye contact with him.

“Hello.” I nodded back politely.

“What’s going on here?” He asked in a whispered tone as he scanned the hallway full of people.

“We’re all here for internship interviews.” I shrugged and held my folder a bit tighter, matching how quiet he was being. “Only two of us will actually get it, though.”

He whistled lowly and squinted his eyes just a little. “What do you think your chances are?”

I hummed, taking another look at everybody around me. “Not that great, to be honest. I’m the youngest here.”

“Age doesn’t matter.”

“It does in the job world, unfortunately,” I corrected, briefly taking another glance at him. He was pretty good looking really. “Either way, I’m sure there’s people here who are more suited for the positions. I’m not really the ‘Experience Management’ type.”

“No?” He raised an eyebrow and gave me a small smirk. “What type are you then?”

“More of the songwriting and producing type,” I confessed. Maybe it wasn’t great to tell somebody here that I didn’t feel like I was a good fit when I was just minutes away from going to an interview to convince them that I was the best candidate.

“Oooh,” he approved with a big sexy grin, “the best part.”

“Are you in the music sector?”

“I am indeed, yes.”

Then something hit me. I was in some record label’s office after all. “Is that why some people here are staring nervously at you?”

“Yup.”

“Nice.” I gave him a respectful nod. “Signed artist.”

“You know it.” A sly smirk appeared on his face. Before the conversation had a chance to die down, for him to part ways with me and get back to his meeting, he quickly added, “what’s your name?”

I subconsciously looked down at that information sheet I was holding on top of my folder and answered. “Jacie.”

“Are you giving me a fake name?” He happened to take a peak at what I was looking at and saw what I had scribbled down on the paper.

“No.” I shook my head and gave him a little more access, pointing at each of my names individually. “J, A, C, I, E. That’s Jacie.”

“Wow, that’s a signed artist thing to do,” he laughed softly.

“Tell five-year-old Jennifer that,” I sighed and gave him a disappointed look. “Always the diva.”

He gave me a good look over and the smirk returned yet again. “You wanna go out for drinks tomorrow evening?”

I pursed my lips together. “I actually already have plans then.”

“Oh, do you?” He challenged.

“You see, I’m turning a measly twenty-one tomorrow, so I’ve got quite a few other things on my roster.”

“Twenty-one,” he breathed out, “you are indeed a young one.”

“Hey, I warned you,” I defended myself.

Before the flirting could continue for any longer, the name ‘Jennifer Evans’ was called out. It was time to leave the hot guy, who’s name I didn’t even know, behind. I pushed myself off the wall and gave him a salute before walking myself to the dreadful interview room. 


	2. Chapter 2

It was my birthday, and turning 21 meant that I was going to go hard. This by far wasn’t the first time I went out partying or went out to drink, but it was the first time ever that it was legal. There was nothing out there to stop me this time, and I was going to take full advantage of it. My only limit was my tolerance, and I was all for challenging that this time. Who would I be if I didn’t? You only turn 21 once.

I had made even more effort than I’d usually made when going out. It was always a moment for me to go all out and make myself look amazing, but I took it a few steps further this time. I spent an extra half hour on my makeup and had even curled my blonde hair. But the main difference this time was the clothes I wore. Usually I could get away with a nice top and some dark jeans. They’d let me in and I’d easily blend in with the rest of the crowd. This time, I was making a statement. I had on a short burgundy glitter dress. It had no back, there were just two thin straps around my arms keeping up the slouching front. I had paired it with some black heels, another thing I’d usually avoid.

It was all in or nothing.

Luckily, I was fortunate enough to have friends with the exact same mindset. They encouraged my behaviour to make the night all about me. Not only did they buy me alcohol to drink at our pre-drinks, but they also had gotten me a crown and sash. I literally looked like some overly preppy sorority girl. Although I may not have been in one, I did not mind looking like one, especially not on my birthday. It was fun, I was not one to judge.

We started the night at Sarah’s, who was one of my friends, place. She had her own apartment in downtown LA, which was right where we wanted to be. My group of friends came from all over the place. Some, I knew from back in school, others I met outside of school, and a few used to be friends of friends who were taken into our group. I, myself, still lived at home. There was no way I could actually afford moving out in LA. I was lucky that I had been born and grew up there.

It was exciting entering a club for the very first time with my actual ID. I was so used to using a fake and doing my best to not get caught. This was just a whole different experience. I even got a happy birthday from the bouncer, who luckily didn’t second guess all my friends’ IDs. Not all of them were twenty-one yet and he could have definitely known that. It was only logical. But he didn’t even give us a second glance.

The music was blasting, people were dancing, and there already was a queue at the bar. We had come in right at the height of the night, the perfect time to have fun. The first thing we did was dance as soon as we entered the crowd. There was more than enough alcohol in our systems already for us to completely let loose. Slowly but surely, we did occasionally break off to get ourselves some more drinks until we were all tired enough to search out a table. I was the only one without a cup, so I bounced off towards the bar as soon as they all sat down.

I grinned happily when the bartender put the drink I had ordered in front of me. My hands curled around the cup excitedly, as if I had just been given the elixir of eternal life.

“So... you come here often?” A voice said next to me, barely loud enough over the booming music.

I was taking a big gulp from the mixed drink as I turned around to see who was trying to talk with me. My eyes went wide in my drunken state as I recognised the guy. The first thing I thought to do was give him a one armed hug. “Oh my god, hi!”

He looked me over, taking in everything about my outfit. “I see you weren’t lying when you said you had plans because of your birthday.”

“Why would I have?” I giggled, bringing the cold cup to my lips again, looking up at him.

“I really don’t know,” he smirked, leaning against the wall, “rejection isn’t usually a thing I experience.”

“How cocky.” I smiled, biting down lightly on my cup.

His gaze fell on the cup. “What are you drinking?”

“A good old jack and coke.”

“A very safe choice,” he commented while nodding. “How about I buy you a shot?”

I laughed back. “I don’t even know your name!”

“Jack.”

“Ay! Like jack and coke!” I downed the last of my drink, practically slamming my cup on the bar as soon as it was finished.

“Indeed,” he chuckled back, running his hair through his hair to fix it a little. “So, shots?” Once I gave him permission, he pushed into the crowd to get to the bar. “How many friends are you with?”

Although it was a strange question, I answered without thinking twice. “Seven, including me.”

Jack only had to wait a brief minute until he got served. People who had been waiting for longer got visibly annoyed, but he still gave through his order. “Ten shots of vodka.”

I watched as the bartender pulled out ten shot glasses and quickly poured each one full with the clear alcohol. Although I had done shots before, I had never seen this many being poured at once. It was quite mesmerising, really. And terrifying.

“One for you and one for me now, the rest to bring back to your friends,” Jack explained as he pushed a single glass in my direction.

“Are you trying to get me drunk?” I gasped.

“I’m trying to give you the best twenty-first birthday.” He winked and picked up a shot, waiting for me to join him before clinking the glasses together.

The vodka burned as it ran down the back of my throat. It’s warm feeling illuminated my mouth, but made my cough a little as it hit the wrong spot. Jack managed to do it without making a sound, but he did pull a very sour face. It was just slightly delayed, making it look like he had been trying to keep his composure to act all cool, but lost it all when it became too much.

Jack grabbed four of the remaining shot glasses. “So, where are your friends?”

“We managed to get a table.” I pointed in the general direction of where I remembered they were all sitting.

“Well, let’s let them join the party.”

“Wait,” I stopped him by putting my hand on his chest as he started walking, “what about your friends? Can you just leave them?”

“Yeah, they’ll be fine.” He looked back for a second as if he was double checking. I followed his gaze and saw a group of people looking back at us. Most of them were blonde girls, just like me, but they were a bit older.

“Alright, then.” I shrugged and picked up the remaining four shots, balancing them between my fingers and trying my best not to spill any of them.

I led Jack in the general area where I knew the table was. To be honest, I had no idea where exactly they were sitting anymore. It both felt like I was stationary and moving, like time was passing by slowly and very quickly. But, I knew that if I just headed in the right direction, I’d end up finding my way.

“Jacie’s brought a guy back!” My best friend, Hazel, hollered and started hitting her hands on the table as I approached. All our other friends joined in, creating a low anticipating rumble.

“And drinks!” I announced, holding up the three glasses I was holding triumphantly before sliding them onto the table.

Jack put down the drinks as well and my friends started to shuffle up in the booth to give some space to join. However, there was a small issue. There were already six people sitting, and it definitely wasn’t made for eight people. If anything, it couldn’t even fit seven people. One of my friends moved to sit on another of my friends’ lap, making enough space for one person comfortably. Technically, Jack and I could have squished in there, but I had a much better idea.

I took a page out of my friend’s book and told Jack to take the seat before I decided to sit on his lap. It took him a little by surprise, I could feel him tense up beneath me. However, he quickly relaxed and leaned back, putting a hand on my thigh. I moved forward just a tiny bit to pass out all the shots, making my dress rise up a little. For Jack’s shot, I picked it up and shuffled so I could look at him.

“Here ya go.” I brought the glass to his lips and giggled. This was my solution to letting him drink it rather than just handing it to him.

He raised his eyebrows at me, but accepted his fate and parted his lips. I tipped the glass, making the vodka pour into his mouth, somehow not spilling any of it. He pulled a sour face at the fact that the alcohol was longer in his mouth than he would have liked. As soon as he was finished, I reached back and switched out the empty glass for the full one and knocked it back myself. I slammed the glass on the table and couldn’t hold back my laughter anymore. There wasn’t anything that was funny, it just suddenly hit me.

I didn’t realise I was leaning back, about to topple over, until I suddenly felt Jack’s hand cold against my back and that my head was against my friend’s shoulder. Chugging a drink and then doing two shots in the span of less than half an hour hadn’t been the smartest idea, but I was loving it.

Jack helped me back up and I reached out to circle my arms around his neck so I could stabilise myself. We were face to face. Everything was spinning just a little, but I could stare right into his eyes. The music was still drumming in my ears and the air was sticky and hot. I had no inhibitions anymore. There were no better judgements.

I pulled him closer and slammed my lips into his. He greedily kissed me back, his arms wrapped around my waist to keep me in place. My friends were hollering and clapping, but I didn’t pay them any attention. I deepened the kiss even further, aching for everything he could possibly do to me. The way his tongue worked could only mean good news.

As you can guess, I took an Uber back with Jack to his place. After a night full of dancing together and making out, there was no way the night wouldn’t end this way. And fuck, was it a good decision. 


	3. Chapter 3

I woke up in a dark room, in a bed that most definitely wasn’t mine. The mattress was so soft and the pillows so plush. I didn’t own something so nice. As if the high ceilings and tall windows with blackout curtains didn’t say enough, the deep breathing coming from behind me definitely did. There was a huge gap in my memory, but I could still remember seeing Jack and going home with him. The chunk in between, though, was gone.

I carefully shuffled around, trying my best not to wake Jack, and looked around at the floor. My purse had conveniently been discarded right at the bottom of the nightstand. I briefly glanced behind me and saw Jack sleeping on his stomach, his arms hooked around the pillow he was using. Still, trying to make as little movement as possible, I stretched out and nearly fell off the bed trying to get to my purse. I could barely graze it with my finger tips, but managed to bring it closer.

As soon as it was within reach, I grabbed it and opened it to check my phone. It was 8:45 am, I had forty missed notifications, three missed calls, and an alarm that was about to go off in fifteen minutes. The first thing I did was turn off the alarm as I pushed myself up and sat up. I was already awake, I didn’t need another reminder. The missed calls were from while we were still at the club, so I figured those didn’t matter anymore. And the messages were from my friends trying to coordinate where they had all ended up and reminding each other that we were going to go out for brunch at ten o’clock.

I shot them a quick text to show them I was alive and awake and ready to continue the celebrations. Immediately, I started getting messages back, asking me about every single detail. I ignored it all for now and locked my phone. Jack was still fast asleep. I wasn’t exactly sure what to do. Was I going to be rude and just leave without a trace or was I going to be rude and wake him up? I had had one night stands before, and I always knew exactly what to go for. There was always a feeling about which option would be the right choice. But this time I was unsure.

He was sleeping so deeply that I figured there would be no point trying to play it off and act like I was also still asleep until he woke up. And I also had somewhere to be. Before my birthday brunch, I was going to need to get changed as well. There wasn’t any time I could waste. I could only have looked like quite a mess after that night.

I went against the feeling of not just leaving him and got out of the bed. This time, however, I wasn’t as careful anymore. Part of me was hoping he’d wake up from my movement. But when I turned around as my feet touched the floor, he hadn’t even moved an inch. I counted my losses and put on my panties and dress, figuring that this was the end of it all. Not that that would have been horrible, it just felt strange.

To my surprise, he actually started stirring while I was awkwardly standing in the middle of the room, busy trying to tie my hair up in an attempt to make it less messy.

“Hey,” I greeted him when I noticed his eyes fluttering slightly.

A sleepy smirk graced his face when he saw me. “Hey.”

“I’m sorry if I woke you up,” I apologised while I tied the hair tie around my ponytail.

“No, you’re good.” He stretched out and rolled onto his side. “What time is it?”

“Nine am.”

“ _Nine_ am?”

“Is it a little too early for you?” I grabbed my phone, which I had temporarily put on the nightstand, and put it back into my purse.

“A little yeah,” he agreed and nodded. “Don’t you think so as well?”

“No, not really, I just woke up.” I shrugged and also picked up my heels, deciding that they were not going to go back on.

He whistled and rubbed his eyes. “Are you not tired? No hangover?”

“Party all night, work all day.”

“Damn…” He sighed, showing that he was impressed with how I was either not feeling it or at least playing it off. “Alright. Well, I’m assuming you’re off then?”

“As much as I’d love to stay, I do actually have a breakfast to get to with my friends.”

“I won’t even second guess that, you haven’t lied to me yet.”

“If it makes you feel any better, I enjoyed last night.” I winked.

He didn’t respond back with something similar, instead he asked, “can I get your number?”

“My number?” I raised an eyebrow in amusement. “What, do you keep a list of trophies?”

“I just want to be able to talk to you.”

I considered my options. There actually wasn’t a reason why I wouldn’t give it to him. If he did nothing with it, then that was that and it didn’t matter. If he did contact me, then I could possibly have another amazing night, which only sounded like something positive. He wasn’t some guy that I didn’t want messaging me. So, there really wasn’t anything from stopping me.

“Alright,” I reached out my hand to signal that he should give his phone.

He turned over to grab his phone from his nightstand and unlocked it before reaching out the length of the bed to hand it to me. I took a step closer and took it from him, finding it already on a new contact page. I filled in my name as J.A.C.I.E. so he couldn’t mix me up with anybody else, my name was an acronym afterall. Of course, I put in my actual phone number and saved the contact before handing it back to him.

“I’ll walk myself out,” I gestured towards the door after he checked over what I had put in. “That way you don’t need to get out of bed.”

“Are you sure?” He asked, already preparing to get out of bed.

“Yeah,” I smirked at him and put my hand on the door handle, “I can still walk, believe it or not.”

He smiled back with a knowing look. “It’s the door right across the living room.”

“Thanks.” I winked back one last time and left his room.

I gently closed the door back behind me and was surprised at the living room. It wasn’t that impressive or anything, I just had no recollection of the place at all. He had some random photos and guitars up on his wall, and I spotted some record plaques up at the stairs that led to god-knows-where. I just walked through the apartment and made sure to order an Uber so I could actually get out of here, wherever I was.

Turned out I was somewhere all the way in Studio City. A little ways away from Downtown LA. It wasn’t too bad, but I was glad I left when I did, because that car journey took more than twenty minutes. And that was because we barely had any traffic. I went straight back to Sarah’s apartment. There was no way I’d go home to change. My dad knew I was out with my friends, but he did not need to see me do the walk of shame. If anything, I needed to avoid him seeing me do one. He did not need to know.

I felt pretty judged the whole ride back. The driver probably wasn’t judging me at all. He was most likely used to driving people home in my situation and I really wasn’t all that embarrassed. I had no regrets. Still, it was like it was ingrained into me, that I had to feel awkward and ashamed. This was no walk of shame. It was the power walk of scoring that night.

Once I got to the apartment, Sarah opened the door very excitedly for me. She had a giddy grin spread across her face and was practically jumping as she let me in. I didn’t know how her night had ended, but she looked ready to go. She was already wearing normal casual clothes and had done her hair and makeup. I looked like a reckless mess next to her.

“Oh my god!” She yelled out as soon as she closed the door. “You need to tell us everything.”

“Is that Jacie?” Hazel’s voice called out from the living room. Once we turned the corner and she saw that it was indeed me, she jumped up from where she was lounging on the couch and sat down, waiting for me to tell the story. “Tell us everything!”

“My back hurts,” I whined with a little laugh. All I could do was rub my hand on my lower back for a bit.

Hazel’s eyes went wide. “I’m going to assume that’s a good thing.”

“He fucked me so good,” I sighed in satisfaction and dropped my shoes on the floor.

“Did he go down on you?!” Sarah joined in again, clapping her hands together in anticipation.

“He did so much more than just go down on me.” I let myself drop down next to Hazel and leaned against her to stare into her eyes. “It was fucking amazing.”

“Best you’ve ever had?” She brushed away some hair in my face.

I breathed out heavily and shrugged in disbelief. “I don’t know how many more years of experience he has, but he’s definitely not some twenty-one-year-old boy.”

“One you go there, you never go back,” Sarah daydreamed.

“Says the one who kicked a boy out at 4am because he was being sloppy,” Hazel snorted.

“Hey!” Sarah threw a pillow at us, only trying to hit Hazel. “I’ll admit that was a low point last night. But – and this is a big one – I did kick him out!”

“What have the others been up to, actually?” I interjected even though I could have probably just checked my text messages to find out.

“No, no, that will come later. Now’s your time to tell us all about that hot blonde guy and you.”

“Well,” I relaxed further into Hazel and she wrapped her arms around me, “let me tell you…”


End file.
